


it only counts if you want it to

by PlacentaMilk



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AU, Allura's Waluigi, College AU, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Miscommunication, Shiro's Potato Salad, also there's no actual ghosts in here, but not really, ghost dating?, how am i supposed to tag this, idk - Freeform, klance, this isnt that long, uh, you'll see what i mean by ghost dating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-02
Updated: 2018-11-02
Packaged: 2019-08-16 17:42:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16499840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PlacentaMilk/pseuds/PlacentaMilk
Summary: "You've been dating me," Lance accuses, looking awfully winded for three flights of stairs. "You've been ghost dating me!" His tone is accusing and his eyes are narrowed, but he isn't mad.





	it only counts if you want it to

Its 2 am when the door to Lance's dorm opens quietly. He doesn't even notice it at first, too busy with his phone to notice the door open, but then its opening wider and it creaks.

Lance looks up from his phone, heart starting to race at the potential murder situation, but its just Keith.

Of course it is.

"It's two in the morning," Lance says to Keith, who doesn't say anything as he closes the door and locks it. He walks closer, pulling his phone out of his hoodie pocket to drop it on Lance's cluttered desk, taking off his slip-on knock off brand vans. "You okay?" Lance asks, turning to lie on his back and opening his right arm out for Keith to come lie in. The other nods tiredly and straddles Lance's legs, immediately slumping over and resting his head on his chest. Lance lets his phone fall to the sheets and wraps both arms around Keith's back, a hand worming its way underneath the black hoodie to stroke his back.

Keith doesn't say anything, just picks up Lances phone and continues scrolling through Instagram for him, his nose scrunching a bit at a text post. Lance just watches him, tries counting his eyelashes but gives up. "Any reason you're here right now?" he asks. Its been four days since he last saw Keith, he wants him to say _something._

"I can go," Keith mumbles, dropping the phone and leaning up a bit so Lance has to look up at him, elbows keeping him up.

"I didn't say I wanted you to go, I just asked why you're here."

"You want me to stay?"

"Yes," Lance says without hesitation. That shouldn't be a question in the first place.

"Then why does it matter?" Keith asks as he lowers back down, chin coming to rest on Lance's chest, but eyes never straying from the others.

"Because you've been gone and now you're back at two in the morning."

Keith blinks at him, slowly, tiredly. "I can go where I want, Lance. We're not children."

Lance rolls his eyes. He knows that. He knows that anybody can go where ever they want, but skipping four days of college isn't a good habit. Especially when you're not even in your bed at 3 am. (Yes, Lance checked.) "Just answer my question."

"I'm here at two in the morning because I wanted to see you." Keith sighs, then yawns. His eyes close and his head drops, yawning into the old blue t-shirt the boy wears.

"Could've seen me yesterday, or the day before that. Oh, wait, you couldn't, because you were mysteriously gone." To add to his statement, he pinches the skin of Keith's lower back.

"Just shut up, god, you whine too much," Keith mumbles before he rises up again and captures Lances mouth with his own. Lance lets it go for now and closes his eyes, kisses the raven-haired boy back like he's been wanting to. It's easy as its always been, losing himself in kissing Keith.

Keith's too good with his mouth.

Eventually, though, he pulls away and trails kisses down the side of Lance's face and to his neck, planting a few and nipping the skin before stuffing his face there, body becoming limp in Lance's arms.

 

-

  
In the morning, Lance wakes up before Keith does and takes a picture of him sleeping to post to instagram later. His phone dies quickly from not being plugged in all night so he stares at Keith's face instead, as a way to entertain him.

This... thing between them... Lance isn't too sure about. They had never asked each other out, it just kind of became a _thing_. He doesn't know if _they're_ an exclusive? thing, though.

One thing he is certain about? Is that Keith is one of the prettiest boys Lance has ever seen, and waking up next to him is something Lance could live with for the rest of his life.

He lays next to the sleeping boy and just stares. For minutes, undisturbed. Completely captured by how unreal this is. By how pretty Keith is when he isn't frowning, or looking like he's about to pass out.

Said boy eventually wakes up, aware of Lances staring before he even opens his eyes. "You're staring," he mumbles, eyes still closed.

"No, I'm not," Lance replies, not ashamed that he was caught in the act.

"It's creepy."

He feels Lance shrug next to him. "It's not my fault you're pretty when you're sleeping."

Keith's eyes open and he turns to look at Lance, a frown working at the corners of his lips.

"See you just ruined it."

"Not my fault that what you said was creepy."

Lance rolls his eyes and turns onto his back, away from Keith. He takes this moment to plug his dead phone into the charger on his night-stand. "It wasn't creepy, its the truth. You're not all frowny and dead-looking when you're asleep."

Keith turns onto his side, propping his head up with his hand to stare at the back of Lance's head. "The hell does that mean?" he asks.

"Exactly what I said." Lance gets up from the bed without looking at Keith, crossing the room to go into the bathroom. He goes inside and closes the door, locks it behind him.

Keith sighs and glances around the room, tries to find something he can occupy his time with. He thinks to Lances phone, but doesn't know the passcode. Eventually, he just takes Lances pillow and hugs it to his chest, burying his face into it and curling around it.

When Lance finally comes out of the bathroom, showered down and teeth brushed, he wishes desperately that his eyes could capture pictures like his phone and print them out.

"That's my pillow," is what he says instead, walking over to his small dresser and pulling out a pair of shorts to put on.

Keith doesn't open his eyes or lifts his head to respond, all he says is "So is the one under me, but you don't care about that one. All pillow lives matter, Lance."

Lance snorts as he pulls up his shorts and puts his towel down on the dresser, walking back over to the bed and sitting on it, looking down at Keith. At the feeling of the bed dipping in the slightest, Keith opens his eyes to stare at the brunette.

"Will you tell me where you were now?"

Keith sighs and takes Lance's pillow, turning over on top of the bed so he faces the window instead of Lance. Said boy groans, turning to crawl the short distance across the bed to Keith, cold hands slipping under the black hoodie. Keith all but raises his hand and slaps Lance's arm, trying to wiggle away from the ice fingers.

"Are my fingers cold, Keith? Maybe if you would stop being an ass and tell me, I'd stop," Lance sings, fingers slipping further up Keith's hoodie and pressing against the warm skin of his back, a hand curling around his hip to tug Keith closer.

"Stop it," Keith pushes at Lance to get away from the cold fingers now trying to tickle him. "I was at Pidge's!" He gasps before his hand comes up, completely out of his control, and smacks Lance across the face. It gets Lance to stop digging his fingers into his sides, so he doesn't feel all that bad about it, except for he does when he turns to face the boy and Lance is looking at him with utter betrayal. "Sorry."

"You liar, I went to Pidges dorm! I asked her multiple times if she knew where you were, and she always said no."

"Did she ever try to help you find me or did she just tell you that maybe I needed space?" Keith asks, quieter than Lance's accusing, loud voice. His hand comes up to rub the cheek he hit.

At the question Lance slumps back, instead of on his knees, he sits fully down. "So you were gone for four days, absent from all your classes and lectures, because you needed space."

"Yes."

"Well what did I do? Because you can avoid me for two days but not Pidge, so what did I do?" Lance frowns, leaning away from the hand that's trying to rub his cheek.

"It wasn't just you, it was everybody. You didn't do anything Lance, now come down here." Keith grabs one of Lance's wrists and pulls, trying to get the brunette to fall down next to him so he can kiss the frown off his lips.

"So if I didn't do anything, how come you didn't want to tell me where you were or what you've been doing? And _Pidge_ out of all people," Lance exclaims, only scooting closer instead of laying down like Keith wants him to. If he lays down, Keith will distract him from the questions he's asking, and he'll never get answers.

"Because I knew you were going to act like this and I didn't want to argue, please let me kiss you, you big baby," Keith tugs his wrist again, moving to sit up himself when Lance doesn't budge. "Pidge is quiet, she didn't ask questions, she let me sleep on her comfy chair and left me alone. I needed that. Hunk would've smothered me with his baking, Shiro would've suffocated me with his fucking critical, I'm-your-mother-and-I'm-worried-about-you eyes, and you would've tried to cheer me up, which I always appreciate Lance but I just wanted to be alone."

Lance still pouts, feeling like he should be good enough to where Keith can come to him no matter what (which, he does for the most part). "Tell me why and I'll let it go," Lance mummers, let's Keith rest their foreheads against each other.

"I just got into a depressing mood," Keith says, equally soft and quiet. "Felt like I was suffocating."

Lance nods, short and barely there with their foreheads touching, and his eyelashes are fluttering before he closes his eyes and closes the tiny space between them, lips sliding together easily.

He gets it. The depressive moods, feeling hopeless. He knows about them from experience, dealing with his own and others, he just wishes Keith would've come to him, wanting to be alone or not.

Keith kisses back like he's been wanting to since he woke up and felt Lance's eyes on him. Soft, maybe a bit needy, but they have all the time in the world for a lazy Saturday morning, and he lets himself savor each small moment, even though he knows they'll have thousands more just like this. Lance's hands settle on his bare thighs (which, he kicked his jeans off at some point in his sleep, apparently, he'll have to find them later) and he jumps, just in the slightest. "Your hands are still cold," he mutters into the kiss, his own landing on Lance's and worming between the fingers and his thighs, lacing their hands together and bringing the brunette closer by dragging his hands backward, near his head

Lance follows easily, saying a "Sorry" while squeezing Keith's hands. They fall back on the bed, Keith lying down with his hands pinned on either side of his head, knees coming up to bracket hips.

This time its Lance who trails the kisses down the other's neck. Keith likes to nip, but he likes to bite, leaving bruises on the paler skin. Which he does this time, just one, a deep lovely red under Keith's jaw. Keith always reprimands him on it, but if he didn't like it he wouldn't tilt his head back and make the soft noises he's making now, so Lance continues to mark Keith like he's his without a doubt in his mind that this is entirely worth it.

They lay there for an hour, breathing in each other and tasting each other's lips, tongues running along teeth. There's no rush, just a slow burn between them.

Lance gets the thought that he's never been more in love with anybody than he is with Keith. Which, it startles him, just for a second, because being in love with Keith? He isn't sure if this thing is even a thing. But he forgets about that and presses his weight into the boy underneath him, as if he's trying to anchor him there. It feels right to be with Keith like this, as if its "meant to be" or some crap like that. Whatever, he doesn't need to dwell on his thoughts, especially when Keith whines just the slightest when he realizes that Lance is getting distracted from kissing him.

The door opens, a loud squeak as it swings inwards, and Lance pulls back from the octopus underneath him to look over his shoulder.

"Yeah, he's here. They're not naked. Well, Lance has his shirt off and Keith doesn't have pants on, but," Pidge shrugs, walking into the room. Hunk peeks around the edge of the door and walks in behind her when he sees they're decent enough.

Keith's bare legs slip off of the other's hips and Lance let's go of his wrists. "Hey, uh, ever heard of knocking Pidge?" Lance asks and scoots away from the raven, trying to not look as embarrassed as he feels.

"Actually, we texted you several times. Now I know why you didn't answer," Pidge smirks, pushes her glasses up her nose, raises her eyebrows at Keith who takes a moment to sit up, hair a fluffy mess on top of his head. She doesn't miss the bright red, purpling bruise on his neck. "We're going to meet up with Shiro and Allura, and you two are coming with us."

"Actually," Lance mocks "my phone is dead. That's why I didn't answer. Why are you meeting up with Shiro and Allura and why do we have to come?"

"Because its Saturday," Hunk says as if that solves every question in the world. Lance looks at him with his eyebrows furrowed.

"And?"

"Movie night, idiot," Keith says from behind him, reaching up to tug at his hair. Lance turns and slaps Keith's thigh, a red handprint immediately blooming. Keith hisses and shoves at Lance, who slides off the bed.

"Yes, it's movie night. We're going to get lunch first and then sneak from movie to movie, hopefully by the time we're done, we can get dinner. Allura offered to pay this time," Pidge watches the two with amusement. She'll never say it without any prompting, but they're good for each other. And Hunk owes her twenty, they _were_ trying to do the dirty.

"Yay," Lance says from where he's sitting on the floor, grabbing the pair of black ripped jeans near him and all but throwing it at Keith's face.

"We'll be out in a minute," Keith doesn't even look at them as he says it, eyes focused on the brunette in front of the bed. Pidge watches as he leans forward and lowers himself so he's laying on his stomach, using his hand to grab Lance by the chin and tilt his head to the side, bringing their lips together.

Hunk is the first out of the room, and Pidge follows with a cackle. "A minute!"

\---

"Please, the only person who was scared of that movie was Hunk," Pidge says as they exit the movie room, heading out into the hallway.

"I don't understand how you couldn't be! It's a clown!" Hunk exclaims.

"We hang out with one all the time," She throws a thumb over her shoulder at Lance, who's holding hands with Keith and looking at him like he's in love. It's cute, honestly. Pidge is only jealous.

Allura laughs which catches the two's attention. "He can be quite funny," she agrees, hands clasping together.

"Who can be funny? Me." Lance answers his own question and the group starts walking down the hallway, looking at which movie they should go to next. The last time they did this, they had barely made a choice on the next movie and got thrown out.

"The movie wasn't scary, just messed up," Shiro chimes in, making conversation with Hunk, who is in utter disbelief that he's friends with people who aren't scared of clowns.

"I can't believe you guys."

"It really wasn't that scary, Hunk. It's not even a clown, it's an alien."

"It's a demon from Hell and I'm going to be praising our good lord and savior tonight."

Lance gets to choose next, which really turns into Keith picking, so they slip into the next movie. Hunk swears up and down that he hates them when they choose another scary movie, but when Lance offers to buy Hunk a hotdog or two from the snack bar, he quiets.

"I've actually already seen this one," Keith whispers in Lance's ear when they sit down, all the way in the back.

"So you just wanted to torture Hunk, is that it?" Lance asks, looking away from the screen to look at Keith, whose eyes are already on him, a mischievous glint in them. Keith shrugs, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

"Maybe I just wanted to focus on you more."

"Hey, uh, homosexuals, maybe turn down the Gay, huh?" Pidge whispers, except its a loud whisper, right in Lance's ear.

"It's not gay if you say no homo." Lance turns to look at her, sitting in the seat next to his. She raises an eyebrow, unimpressed. "I say no homo every night before I go to bed so that way anything that happens the next day doesn't count."

She rolls her eyes and turns back to the screen, the corners of her mouth quirking up. "You're an idiot. I'm trying to watch the movie."

"So everything we've done doesn't count? I don't count?" Keith grabs his attention again and he turns back to his right.

"You don't?" Lance gasps softly, the urge to put his insecurities regarding what they are suddenly very present. The need to laugh it off and make a joke out of absolutely everything is more pressing though, and he doesn't think he's ready to be told by Keith that they're just having a fun fling or whatever. "Keith, how are you in college if you don't count?"

He earns a pinch on the arm for that, but he can't say he regrets it. He successfully avoided talking about his feelings, the topic, _and_ possible rejection.

"You know what I meant, asshole," Keith whispers, looking at him with expectant eyes and furrowed brows.

Well, maybe not successfully avoided the topic.

"It only counts if you want it to."

The answer is vague enough that it doesn't elaborate on his feelings or give Keith a chance to put him down, and Keith turns from expectant to confused. If his brows could knot themselves together, Lance is sure they would.

"You may have seen the movie but I haven't," Lance turns his attention back to the screen as Pidge did a couple minutes ago, and Keith doesn't say anything like he expects him to.

He doesn't loop their arms together or lace their hands together, either.

 

\--

 

"Come on, clowns? Demons? Can we stop watching scary movies?" Hunk complains as they leave, walking to the other side of the theater.

"The clown's name is Pennywise," Pidge rolls her eyes, bumping into Hunk as the group walks. "They weren't even that scary."

"Actually, I think our time is up," Allura chimes in and grabs the two people nearest to her, Shiro and Hunk, by the arms and turning the group around, pushing them to the exits of the theater.

Two staff members trail after the large group, giggling as they rush out of the building.

"Well, we weren't kicked out this time!" Allura says cheerfully, all smiles as she pulls the hair tie out of her hair, letting her bun unravel and fall down her back.

"But we did have to leave," Shiro counters.

"Because we wanted to! Now, is everybody hungry?" Allura sounds so mom-like, Lance really can't help the way his eyebrow twitches.

"Yes, I need to stress eat to forget about those absolutely _terrifying_ movies," Hunk exclaims, already making his way back to the car he, Pidge, Keith and Lance had come in.

Pidge snickers, glasses glinting the in street lights as she thinks of a plan. Its a horrible plan, and she'll probably (not likely) feel bad about it afterward, but it's too good to give up. Any chance to scare her friends, even if that particular friend is Hunk, well...

"I think we could agree to food, what do you have in mind Princess?" Shiro asks, the nickname endearingly sickening.

"The wing bar! Bar wings!" Hunk calls, unlocking the door to his van and hopping into the drivers seat.

\--

They end up at the said bar that serves wings. It isn't really a bar, there is a bar, yes, but its more so a restaurant, and the large group is seated at a booth.

Keith (to Lance's displeasure) sits next to Shiro, who sits in the middle of him and Allura. Lance is stuck between a food stealing gremlin and Hunk.

They sit for an hour or two, talking and talking and talking. Lance almost feels... Nostalgic about it? Like he's had this before. Sitting at a table after eating and just talking to his team well into the night. But this is the first time they've actually stayed after eating to just talk, so he waves off the feeling.

Another feeling that's nagging at him is this weird air between him and Keith. Keith didn't talk to him as they rushed out of the theater, or when they sat in the back of Hunks car together. Lance didn't make any moves to hold Keith's hand, because usually its Keith who does that, but he has a feeling the raven-haired boy would've shrugged him off if he tried.

Which,,, why?

After dinner, somehow it completely slips from Lance's attention that Keith isn't walking with him, Pidge, and Hunk back to Hunk's car until he's climbing inside. By that time, Shiro, Allura, and Keith have sped off.

Which,,, why?????

He knows Keith won't come to his room, so instead of staying up and waiting for Keith to slip inside of his room at 2 am, he sends the other boy a text.

Only, a moment later, the other side of his room is lighting up and a phone starts buzzing with a notification on his desk.

He groans.

**Lance**   
_Have I ever told you how much I hate you?_   
_(Sent at 12:52 am)_

_You left your stupid phone in my room and now I'm trying to text you to ask wtf, and now my very darj room is suddenly lit up like christmas_   
_(Sent at 12:53 am)_

_I'm only sending these messages bc I know you're gonna come get your phone soon and I want u to see the pain you've caused me_   
_(Sent at 12:53 am)_

_I'm getting up to turn ur phone over bc its too bright 4 me_   
_(Sent at 12:54 am)_

_I did it_   
_(Sent at 1:02 am)_

_Now I'm comfy in my bed again, no thanks to u_   
_(Sent at 1:02 am)_

_I have a feeling, just a slight one, that you went home with shito and allura bc of what I said_   
_(Sent at 1:34 am)_

_Shiro*_   
_(Sent at 1:34 am)_

_no that's hilarious nvm I'm taking back my correction_   
_(Sent at 1:35 am)_

_Anyway um, idk what you wanted from me when you asked if you mattered (because_ ofc _you do, idiot) but when you sneak into my room to steal your phone when you think im asleep, maybe you should just stay until I wake up and we can talk abt it like adults do_  
 _(Sent at 1:37 am)_

_or maybe you won't come get your phone and you'll necer see these messages bc you're pretty_   
_(Sent at 1:37 am)_

_I meant petty but you're pretty too_   
_(Sent at 1:38 am)_

_kk I love u gn_   
_(Sent at 1:39 am)_

 

\--

 

When Lance wakes up the next morning, no warm body next to him, he's disappointed. Even more so when he turns over in his bed to get away from the light streaming in through his window, and sees Keith's phone still sitting on top of his desk.

So what if he deletes all the messages he sent on his phone because he feels stupid? So what if he spends the morning in the shower with a mud mask on, sulking? Sue him. He's sad.

He knows Keith is at Shiro's, because he drove back to the dorms with them yesterday, and because the boy never likes actually sleeping in his dorm room. He debates walking across campus to give Shiro the phone, but ultimately? He can't find it in himself to get back up after he settles down on his sheets, face pressed into the pillows.

He texts Shiro around one to ask if Keith is there and Shiro says no, Keith had left last night.

Great.

He wants to let it go. He really, _really_ wants to just let it go and let Keith do his own thing. They aren't even a thing, that's obvious. He doesn't need to worry about Keith and what he's doing every single minute.

Except, he does.

Lance let's out a loud groan and says some very colorful words that his mother would surely hit him for, and gets up. Screw Keith. Who does he think he is? Leaving his phone in Lance's room. Making Lance worried about him. About them.

He finally drags himself out of his room, Keith's phone in pocket, and makes his way to the other side of campus. Like Shiro and Allura, Keith's dorm is the farthest it could be from Lance's. He texts Pidge on his way, asks if Keith ever showed up, and she says no. Then Lance pesters her about it, knowing that she had lied to him before.

**Pidgeon**   
_i thought it was odd he didn't come back with us, considering how much he likes u, but no, he isn't here, u can swing by if you really want._   
_(Sent at 11:04 am)_

_I can text him?_   
_(Sent at 11:04 am)_

**Lance**   
_oh yea he sure likes me alright whooptie doo_   
_(Sent at 11:05 am)_

_no, he left his phone before we left yesterday. ill come by and just hang ig if keith isn't in his room_   
_(Sent at 11:05 am)_

**Pidgeon**   
_Kk_   
_(Sent at 11:05 am)_

_OH you can help me on dark souls then_   
_(Sent at 11:06 am)_

_Cause I'm sucking major dicks rn_   
_(Sent at 11:07 am)_

_Like_   
_(Sent at 11:07 am)_

_Dicks everywhere. All in my mouth._   
_(Sent at 11:07 am)_

_Balls_   
_(Sent at 11:08 am)_

**Lance**   
_pidg pls for the sake of my sanity shut up about dicks in your mouth_   
_(Sent at 11:10 am)_

**Pidgeon**   
_what you can talk about how dick hungry you are twenty four seven but when a game starts shoving them down my throat its weird_   
_(Sent at 11:11 am)_

_that's sexist and homophobic at best_   
_(Sent at 11:11 am)_

**Lance**   
_what is it at worst_   
_(Sent at 11:12 am)_

**Pidgeon**   
_Racist._   
_(Sent at 11:12 am)_

Lance turns off his phone at that, a smile on his lips. He can't find it in himself to be bitter at the moment, Pidge could say the most random shit and he'd feel better.

He walks up the steps of the second dorm building, walking to the third level. He almost knocks on the wrong door, since Keith never actually uses his room, but remembers at the last second that its _not_ 304 its actually 306.

He knocks and waits for a moment. Knocks more. Tries the doorknob when he waits longer than he should have to, only to find it locked.

"Keithhh," he calls, standing patiently. "Are you in there for once? Because you seem to be nowhere else."

There's no answer, and he can't hear any movement or talking inside, he decides to let it go. Just like that. If Keith doesn't want his phone back, then that's fine with him. He turns back and starts walking down the hallway after another minute, jogging down the stairs to get as far away from the corridor as possible.

"Going somewhere?" A voice calls from in front of him, and he looks up from his feet walking down the stairs. Of course Keith stands at the bottom, looking sweaty and Lance can't remember why he was mad.

Yes he can.

"You left your phone in my room. Just came to give it back," he smiles, walking down the rest of the stairs and pulling Keith's phone out of his back pocket, holding it out. Keith nods slowly, one hand coming up to brush his damp bangs out of his face and the other taking the phone.

Oh, Keith is so pretty without his stupid mullet in his face.

"Yup. I'm going now," Lance smiles and breezes past the other. What the hell had happened to asking why Keith had left again last night, or why Keith didn't speak to him after the movie theater.

Keith's hand reaches out and grabs Lance by the arm, pulling him back. When Lance suddenly stumbles back, question of _why the fuck_ on his tongue, Keith presses forward and kisses him. There's a distressed sound somewhere in the back of Lance's throat, because on one hand he's mad and the other is worried, and on a third he just _really_ wants to get away, but on a forth he loves kissing Keith and can't help but reciprocate the kiss.

"You won't talk to me after we leave from the theaters and you leave with Shiro, but you'll kiss me the next day?" Lance asks when Keith pulls away.

"It only counts if I want it to, Lance. This doesn't."

And Keith turns around and jogs up the stairs, phone in hand.

\--

"He said _'It only counts if I want it to, Lance. This doesn't.'_ What the _fuck_ does that mean?" Lance exclaims as he lets himself into Pidge's room, shutting the door (very loudly) behind him.

"What?" Pidge yells from behind the closed bathroom door.

Lance decides to wait until Pidge comes out and makes himself at home on her messy bed. Her room is messy but its an organized messy. All of her clothes thrown into two hampers, one for clean and one for dirty, so that way she can fit her TV and TV stand into her closet like he does. (Although, he just hangs his clothes up on either side of the TV, but whatever.) She doesn't have a desk, instead uses her bed for everything. Work? On the bed in the corner. Laptop? On top of the work in the corner. Tons and tons of bottles of water? Taking up the left side of the bed.

"So, I went over to his room," Lance starts when Pidge finally comes out of the bathroom "and I knocked on his door. A bunch of times. He never answered so I finally just left, and while I was walking down the stairs, he came up and asked if I was going anywhere. I told him I was just returning his phone, and I gave it to him, then I started walking away."

Pidge nods, pushes her glasses up her nose, and then sits down on the floor in front of the low TV stand, picking up her controller and resuming her game. "Continue, I'm listening."

"And he grabs me by the arm and pulls me back and kisses me. Alright, I like kisses. When he pulls away, I go _'So you won't talk to me after the theaters and you'll ride home with Shiro and Allura, but then you'll kiss me the next day?'_ and this... This _emo_ says _'It only counts if I want it to, Lance. This doesn't.'"_

Lance sits there for a moment, watches Pidge move around on the screen and roll out of the way of a monster, only to fall off the side of the cliff. "What the fuck does that mean?!" He exclaims.

"Mmmmm sounds like you fucked up," Pidge says, restarting from her last checkpoint.

"Pidge I fuck up a lot of things but _how_ did I fuck up this thing? Nothing happened!"

"Maybe, and this is just a thought here, it's what you said when we were in the movie? Considering how he used your own words against you. Are you _fucking_ serious?!" She yells when she ends up halfway stuck in a wall and has to restart from her last checkpoint again. "I don't know how I manage to fuck up my games but I always do!"

Lance halfheartedly snickers at that, falling sideways on her bed to watch her play. "So the entire reason why he ignored me yesterday and drove with Shiro and Allura is because I told him this... Thing between us matters if he wants it to?"

Pidge frowns at that and glances at the lanky boy on top of her bed before going back to her game. "Thing?"

"Yes, the... Kissing and the holding hands, this _thing_."

"Lance, that's not a thing, that's dating. The entire group has long since accepted the fact that you two are dating, and you've been calling it a _thing_ this entire time?"

"It's-! We never asked each other out or really said anything about it, it just happened! It's not like we take each other out on dates or anything!"

"You guys just went to the new sushi place in the forum last week!"

"I didn't even want to go though!" Lance retaliates, rolling off the bed to lay down next to Pidge on the floor, who's concentrating on the game.

"But you took Keith because he really wanted to go. And when you guys came back you said it wasn't so bad, because Keith was happy the entire time. I fucking give _up_ on life, I'm going to hang myself in my closet," Pidge sighs and all but tosses the controller to Lance when she dies again.

"This isn't even a boss fight, why don't you just go around them?" He questions, restarting from her last checkpoint. "And anyway, he was making the puppy dog eyes, you know how lethal that face is. I took him so I didn't die."

"Because going around is so easy, har har, I hope you fall off the cliff. _And anyway,_ no, you took him because you wanted to see him happy, because you guys are dating." Pidge mocks, and just to torture him, she sits on his back.

"Pidge I love you but your boney butt is digging into my spine," Lance tries leaning side to side to shake the spider monkey off, but she just cackles and bears her weight down more, digging her boney ass into his back. "We are not dating. We've never say any of the cute dating stuff like nicknames, or-"

"That's because Keith would murder you if you called him anything cute, and we all know it."

Lance manages to ignore Pidge and her boney ass long enough to get past the cliff roads, "Take your stupid controller back and get off of me."

Pidge does, thank the lord, and takes the controller back. "You two literally started making out in front of Hunk and I yesterday. People who aren't dating don't do that, nor do they hold hands all the time, or sleep with each other, or give each other hickeys."

Lance narrows his eyes at her for a moment, and if she paused the game to look at him, she'd probably see the gears turning in his head. "I've been dating Keith..." He says slowly.

"Yes. And he's been dating you."

"He's been dating me... This entire time."

"Yes. You can be so smart sometimes, how are you this dumb."

 

\--

 

Keith opens his door, no longer in his workout shorts and t-shirt, but instead in a dark pair of sweats and his hoodie. He raises an eyebrow at the person who stands in front of his door.

"You've been dating me," Lance accuses, looking awfully winded for three flights of stairs. "You've been ghost dating me!" His tone is accusing and his eyes are narrowed, but he isn't mad.

"Ghost dating?" Keith asks, unimpressed.

"Yes! You've been dating me behind my back! I thought this thing was just a _thing_ , I didn't ever want to say anything because I thought it was just a **_thing_ **but we've been dating this entire time!" Lance exclaims, throwing his hands in the air. "And you got mad at me because I said your ghost dating only mattered if you wanted it to! I only said that because I didn't know what we were!"

"Lance, we literally kiss. All the time. You had your dick pressed against mine yesterday and liked it. You asked everyone where I was and came by my room when I was staying at Pidge's."

"I thought it was a fling and that I didn't actually matter! And I was worried, I'm allowed to be worried." Lance doesn't pout. Maybe he does, but only in the slightest.

Keith's eyebrows furrow at that. The first part, anyway. He knows Lance was worried about him, but so was Pidge.

"Lance, if I wanted a fling I could choose anybody on campus. Or outside of campus. Choosing a friend hardly seems like the best option for a fling."

"So we've been dating this entire time?" Lance presses, as if he didn't _just_ accuse Keith of them dating the entire time.

"I thought we were. You know, showing up in your room at two a.m. to kiss you goodnight and sleep on your chest, or doing nothing for hours besides kissing one another doesn't seem like a 'friend' thing, Lance."

Lance takes a moment of just staring at Keith. When he said he wouldn't mind waking up every day next to the other, he meant it, and now that can actually happen? (As if it hadn't been.)

Then he all but throws himself forward, grabbing Keith by the back of his neck and bringing him closer to kiss the absolute light out of him. It feels as right as it always has.

Keith's hands reach out to grab Lance's hips, tugging the brunette closer and inside of his dorm, away from any prying eyes or hallway surveillance cameras. He presses the other up against the door and breathes him in, bites down on the others bottom lip and pulls away before letting it go, enjoying the fact that Lance's lips are red and shiny because of him.

"Are you still mad at me?" Lance whispers between the two of them.

Keith nods. "Maybe I could be persuaded to let it go, though," he mumbles, thumbs pressing into the others hip bones, and Lance smirks at that.

"How can I persuade you?" He teases, leaning in as close as he can before they're kissing again.

Keith's hands slide down his hips, to the back of his thighs, and with a glint in his eyes he picks Lances legs up off of the floor, wrapping them around his waist. Lance absolutely does not squeak in surprise, and holy shit when did Keith get the ability to just. Pick him up like that? Or did he always have it, and chose to let Lance press him into his small bed when they could've been doing hot stuff like _this_.

"You've been holding out on me," Lance accuses, leaning in to bite bruises into Keith's skin as Keith presses him against the door.

Keith chuckles at that, head tilting to the side to give Lance better access. "I like just laying in bed and kissing you," he mumbles, one hand letting go of Lance's thigh and trailing up "you seem to like the kinkier stuff."

Lance chooses to swap biting Keith's skin in favor to lean back against the door and laugh. "Only holding someone up against the door would be kinky to Keith Kogane!" He exclaims, laughter bubbling out of his mouth. His grip on Keith slips and so does he, but Keith holds him up against the door easily.

Keith's free hand trails up and catches the brunette by the throat, fingers pressing only the slightest, tilting Lances head to the side so he can lean in and press kisses to the tan skin. "I was talking about stuff like this," he mumbles, fingers squeezing tighter before releasing.

They hadn't done a lot together, besides one or two hand jobs, throw a couple of dicks in mouths in there too, (Lance might like being choked with dick, so what?) so they haven't really explored kinks and all that, but Keith knows Lance likes breath play.

Lance grins and relaxes in Keith's hold. "You gonna be rough with me for once?"

Keith nips at the sensitive skin below his ear, fingers squeezing again before releasing and trailing his hand down Lance's neck, to his chest. "Giving you what you want is too easy, don't you think?" He asks, fingers slipping underneath the white shirt Lance wears and coming up to tweak his nipples, short fingernails digging into the skin. Lance hisses and arches into Keith's hands, his own grabbing Keith's hair and pulling his head back from his neck, bringing their lips together.

It's so hot between them, Lance can _feel_ how red his cheeks are.

But Keith's no better, so does it really matter? No. Especially when Keith licks into his mouth and gives a little breathy moan when Lance tugs at his hair again.

"Do you want me to beg?" Lance mummers when Keith pulls away again, a thin string of their mixed saliva stretching out before snapping between them.

"I-"

Hunk's laughter comes from the other side of the door and Pidge says "Yes! I'm serious! I wish I was recording our entire conversation." Then there's knocking on the door.

Lance groans softly and holds onto Keith tighter, legs squeezing around his waist. Keith sighs, left hand coming out from underneath the other's shirt, "Guess we should answer that. Let go."

"Or we could just not answer the door?" Lance says quietly, legs slipping off of Keith's waist and feet planting on the floor. "And they'll go away."

"Keith, Lance, are you in there?" Hunk calls from the other side of the door. Keith raises an eyebrow at the brunette in front of him.

"You know they won't," Keith rolls his eyes and all but shoes Lance to the side before opening the door.

Pidge's eyes widen as she looks at Keith, sees his cherry red bitten lips and his hoodie rucked up. Keith is hiding half of his body behind the door but she knows his sweatpants are tented, and all the sudden shes laughing. Laughing so loudly, she's surprised no one comes out of their dorm room to see whats going on. "So," she breathes deeply once she's gotten herself under control. "I assume you guy's have made up?"

If the blush already settled on Keith's cheeks gets any deeper, neither she nor Hunk comment on it.


End file.
